Vilamoura does not need an introduction to golf.
For decades, it has been one of the Algarve's best-known golfing destinations, combining championship courses with a marina, beaches, restaurants and an international community that has gradually transformed what was once primarily a holiday destination into somewhere people increasingly choose to own a home.
What is happening around Springs is therefore interesting for a different reason.
It is not simply another residential development beside another golf course.
In July 2025, Ernie Els officially opened The Els Club Vilamoura, the first Els Club in Europe and the Algarve's first invitation-only private members' golf club. Just over a year later, the course staged the inaugural Portugal Invitational on the PGA TOUR Champions.
Beside it sits Springs — at The Els Club, a collection of 78 contemporary villas.
That sequence — an established destination, a completely reimagined golf course, a new private club and the immediate return of international professional tournament golf — gives Springs something that is difficult to manufacture in real estate.
A story that has already begun, but is still being written.
Buying into a new resort usually involves an element of imagination.
The landscaping will mature. Restaurants will arrive. A community will develop. Facilities will open and, eventually, the destination may establish an identity of its own.
Springs asks buyers to make far fewer assumptions.
Vilamoura is already there.
Its marina, beaches, restaurants, golf courses and international community have been developing for decades. Faro International Airport is within easy reach and the destination has long since demonstrated its ability to attract owners from different countries.
The new element is The Els Club.
For someone considering property in Vilamoura, that creates an unusual combination.
The place is proven. The chapter is new.
The history of the course makes this transformation particularly interesting.
The Els Club did not begin with an untouched piece of Algarve countryside. It emerged from the extensive transformation of the former Victoria Course, a venue already closely associated with professional golf and the Portugal Masters.
Ernie Els and his design team did considerably more than attach a new name to an existing course.
The redesign included new holes, changes to the routing — including reversing the back nine — and the creation of a new practice area. Els himself said at the opening that although golfers might recognise the setting, they would not recognise the golf course.
The result officially opened on 21 July 2025.
It was a significant moment for Els Design: its first Els Club in Europe and a private-club concept deliberately different from the conventional Algarve golf-resort model.
But the next chapter arrived remarkably quickly.
Just over twelve months after the club opened, professional tournament golf returned to this landscape.
From 31 July to 2 August 2026, The Els Club Vilamoura hosted the inaugural Portugal Invitational, part of the PGA TOUR Champions.
It was a significant event in its own right. The tournament brought PGA TOUR Champions golf to continental Europe, while the course became another Ernie Els Design venue to stage a professional Tour event.
The field brought some of international golf's most recognisable names to Vilamoura. Ernie Els played his own course, alongside major champions and Ryder Cup figures including Pádraig Harrington, Stewart Cink, Bernhard Langer, David Duval and Justin Leonard.
In the end, another major champion wrote his name into the club's history.
Zach Johnson won the inaugural Portugal Invitational at 19 under par, two shots ahead of Stewart Cink, with Pádraig Harrington finishing third.
The significance for The Els Club goes beyond the leaderboard.
A course that had opened only the previous summer had already demonstrated that it could host an international professional tournament.
The Els Club was no longer simply a new proposition for Vilamoura.
It had its first piece of sporting history.
The name behind the club also gives the project a provenance that goes beyond branding.
Ernie Els is a four-time Major champion — twice winner of the U.S. Open and twice winner of The Open Championship — and a former world number one.
His career subsequently expanded into golf-course design, with projects across several continents.
The Els Club concept takes that experience in a particular direction. Rather than simply creating courses carrying his name, it is built around a more private club environment, combining golf with service, social life and a sense of community.
Vilamoura represents the concept's first European expression.
That distinction matters when the property next door is considered.
At first sight, Springs can easily be classified as golf real estate.
It is.
But that description is incomplete.
The development comprises 78 contemporary villas, with two-, three- and four-bedroom configurations and a strong relationship between the interiors, terraces, gardens and surrounding landscape.
Golf provides the backdrop.
It should not have to provide the entire lifestyle.
That distinction becomes important because the best golf properties have to work equally well for the person who plays five times a week and the person who never picks up a club.
The question is not simply what happens at 8am when somebody leaves for the first tee.
It is what everybody else does afterwards.
This is where Springs benefits considerably from being in Vilamoura.
A golfer may be attracted initially by The Els Club, but ownership takes place within a much broader destination.
There is the marina. The beaches. Restaurants. Other sporting facilities. The wider Algarve.
Within Springs itself, the Vista Club extends the experience beyond golf, bringing together leisure, wellness, fitness, swimming, food and social spaces.
This matters particularly for homes that may gradually be used for longer periods.
A property bought initially for several weeks each year can become somewhere its owners spend two or three months at a time.
At that point, the criteria change.
Golf is still important.
But so are exercise, restaurants, family life, outdoor space, airport access and simply having enough variety for an ordinary Tuesday.
There was a time when the formula for a golf property was relatively straightforward.
A good course nearby. Preferably a fairway view. Sunshine helped.
Today's international buyer often asks rather more.
Can we spend several months here?
What does my family do while I play?
How easy is the airport?
What happens outside the summer?
Are there good restaurants nearby?
Can the house function as a real home rather than simply holiday accommodation?
Does the surrounding destination have a life of its own?
These questions help explain why the most interesting luxury golf properties in Portugal increasingly need to offer much more than access to a course.
Springs illustrates the point particularly well.
The Els Club may create the initial curiosity. Vilamoura makes the proposition work beyond golf.
There is another interesting tension here.
Established destinations normally provide certainty at the expense of novelty.
By the time somewhere has matured, its important addresses, institutions and communities have already been defined.
At Springs, the two conditions coexist.
Nobody needs to speculate about whether Vilamoura will become an international golf destination. It already is one.
The Els Club, however, is still at the beginning of its European history.
And its first year has been unusually eventful.
The club opened in July 2025. It was subsequently voted World's Best Private Golf Club at the 2025 World Golf Awards. Then, little more than a year after opening, it hosted the inaugural Portugal Invitational on the PGA TOUR Champions.
This is no longer a story based entirely on what might happen.
Several important things already have.
For owners at Springs, that creates the unusual experience of buying beside an institution whose reputation is beginning to form in real time.
The timing also matters because The Els Club is not developing in isolation.
Vilamoura itself continues to evolve from the traditional combination of marina, beach and golf towards a broader year-round residential destination.
New investment and contemporary residential projects are gradually changing what it means to own property here.
Springs fits naturally into that evolution.
The architecture is contemporary. The villas emphasise indoor-outdoor living. The Vista Club expands the residential experience into wellness and leisure.
Immediately alongside sits a private golf club carrying one of the most recognisable names in the sport.
Yet neither Springs nor The Els Club needs to create a destination around itself.
Vilamoura already provides one.
Many beautiful homes overlook golf courses.
That has value.
But a view and a story are not quite the same thing.
The story here begins with a course already embedded in Portugal's professional golf history.
It continues with a four-time Major champion completely rethinking that course and bringing his private club concept to Europe for the first time.
The Els Club opens.
Springs develops beside it.
And little more than twelve months later, Zach Johnson lifts the trophy at the inaugural Portugal Invitational after three days of PGA TOUR Champions golf on the new course.
Around all of this sits Vilamoura, a destination that has spent decades learning how to combine golf with marina life, beaches, restaurants and international ownership.
Another golf course can be built.
Another collection of contemporary villas can be designed.
What is much harder to reproduce is place, provenance and timing coming together at the same moment.
That may ultimately be the most compelling aspect of Springs.
You are not simply buying beside a golf course.
You are arriving near the beginning of its story — after the first chapter has already proved worth reading.
Discover Springs — at The Els Club and the villas currently available in Vilamoura through LUXIMOS Christie's International Real Estate.
